Imagine that you read a news story on a very important topic: the connection between teenage cell phone use and dementia. The writer claims that there is data and evidence showing that teenage cell phone use increases the risk of dementia later in life. However, readers noticed that most of the studies cited in the news story do not exist, and the wrong researchers are listed for one of the actual studies. When asked about this, the author of the news story shrugs it off by saying that the errors were nothing more than minor citation and formatting errors.
Would you wonder why the author built their claims on fake studies? Would you question the motivation and effort that went into that new story? Would you be less likely to follow the suggestions in that new story, knowing that the author did not take the time to find credible studies and cite them correctly?
If you were a college professor grading a report based on non-existent studies, would this affect the grade you assigned? Would you wonder how and where the student found information for the report? Would you wonder why the student submitted work that included fabricated or made-up information? Would it surprise you to learn that many college professors consider the fabrication of information to be dishonest and improper citing to be plagiarism?
Students often wonder why citations are important for academic writing. They show that a student’s work is based on something more than their opinion. Citations show which sources, resources, and tools that informed a student’s point-of-view. They also allow the reader to infer the credibility of that information based on the credibility of those resources, sources, and tools.
Academic writing is also supposed to be about verification. Academic work based on fabricated sources and made-up information has no value—at best it is a poorly-formed opinion; at worst it is a made-up story. Unless you are supposed to share your opinion or produce a creative project, academic writing requires you to document where you found information and often requires students to use credible sources.
It is also important to know that, when you use a credible source, you need to credit that source. Why? In an academic setting, it is rude and dishonest to take credit for someone else’s ideas or to identify someone’s academic or professional work as someone else’s. That can be a type of plagiarism. Also, citing correctly shows that you are building your ideas on credible sources – and that is a very good thing.
Heads Up
Sometimes someone will say something so well that you will want to say it that way too. Remember—if you copy someone else's words in your academic work, you need to put those words between quotation marks and also include an in-text citation, even if you find the information on a website, in an app, or in an artificial intelligence tool like a chatbot or Grammarly. Otherwise, it is plagiarism.
For example:
"You can't be afraid to fail. It's the only way you succeed—you're not gonna succeed all the time, and I know that." – LeBron James
This quote is found at brainyquote.com/quotes/lebron_james_425370
What if you re-conceptualize the information or some of the information? You still need to cite it.
For example:
According to LeBron James, failure is the only pathway to success (see brainyquote.com/quotes/lebron_james_425370).
What information do you need to include in your in-text citations and in your citations at the end of your work? That will vary by class. There are many different ways to cite sources, including the Modern Language Association (MLA) format, the American Psychological Association (APA) format, and the Chicago Manual of Style (or Chicago) format. Each of these formatting styles has its own way to cite text, media, apps, images, artificial intelligence (AI) tools, etc.
You can find details about various citation formats through the University Libraries and tools like the Purdue Owl.
Heads Up
Don't confuse plagiarism and copyright violations. Copyright violation is a legal concern; plagiarism is an ethical and academic concern. Even if you are given permission by a copyright holder to use an image, that image must be cited to avoid plagiarism issues. On the other hand, citing an image does not necessarily preclude copyright violations.
For more information on copyright, please consult these Penn State copyright resources